All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Greece has a new Prime Minister. But no one could call the coalition that he is set to unveil this evening stable. For the other two parties, Pasok and the Democratic Left, are both stressing that none of their members will become cabinet ministers, leaving New Democracy and various worthies to carry the can for
It is always sensible to pay attention to Ben Brogan’s Telegraph column, if only because it so frequently seems to have been dictated by friendly chaps at the Treasury. Today’s is no exception. Cunning Wee Georgie Osborne has had another one of his master-wheezes that, with a fair wind, will seal the next election for
Will Mitt Romney choose an ‘incredibly boring white guy’ to be his vice presidential nominee? The main alternative has long been Hispanic Florida Senator Marco Rubio, but ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported yesterday that Rubio is not being vetted by Romney’s VP search team, suggesting that he is not on the shortlist. Karl wrote: ‘Knowledgeable Republican
Another snippet of good news after yesterday’s inflation stats. Unemployment has fallen, and now stands at 2.61 million. It’s not a big fall, to be sure — down just 51,000 on the previous quarter (within the survey’s margin of error) — and there are still 185,000 more unemployed people than this time last year. But
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Ahead of The Spectator’s schools revolution symposium next Tuesday (click here for details and tickets) we are running a series of articles about school reform. The below is a Swedish take on Swedish reform. Is the Swedish model of profit-making schools going wrong? Michael Gove’s critics have started to say so, and British teachers unions
PMQs today wasn’t the usual bun fight. With Cameron and Clegg away, it was missing its usual bite. Instead, Harman and Hague started off with some very statesman-like comments on Burma. Even when discussion moved to the NHS, things didn’t really heat up. Hague had some good jokes at Ed Balls’s expense but Balls wasn’t
There is much excitement on the wires about David Cameron’s attitude to tax avoidance. The PM’s just told ITV news: ‘He’s [Jimmy Carr] taking the money from tickets and as far as I can see, he’s putting all of that into some very dodgy tax avoiding scheme.’ It is ‘completely wrong’, he said. Asked about
And there we were thinking that the G20 would be another insipid talking shop. In fact there was intrigue, animus and even a modicum of progress on the crucial question of the moment: how to cure the Eurozone. In a major shift in policy, Germany has agreed to use European bailout funds to buy Italian
William Hague met Harriet Harman at PMQs. They were like old lovers bumping into each other at a party. The tension had vanished and little remained but warm mutual regard. Harman led on health rationing and Hague chose not to retaliate, as Cameron surely would have, by demanding to know why she hadn’t mentioned the
I wonder how long it will be before Julian Assange’s highborn leftist supporters finally think, um, hang on, are we on the right side here? The self-obsessed albino mental is now cowering inside the Ecuadorian embassy as a last ditch attempt to get out of his extradition to Sweden. As you are aware, he faces
Professional funny chap Armando Iannucci is laughing it off his recent internet showdown with Alistair Campbell. Sky lobbyist extraordinaire Lucy Aitken has been doing wonders to repair the reputation of Murdoch spinners. Last night, she treated an assembled crowd of hacks and flacks to a boozy preview of Iannucci’s ‘Veep’ — the American ‘Thick of
Last Thursday Mervyn King said ‘the case for further monetary easing is growing’, and today’s surprise inflation figures give the Governor and his policymakers more leeway to introduce the next round of QE, probably as early as next month. Consumer price inflation fell to 2.8 per cent in May from 3.0 per cent in April,
The notorious splitters in the Free Presbyterian Church are at it again. The Wee Wee Frees (who should not be confused with the more numerous Wee Frees) warn that Scottish independence is a risky ploy since the Act of Union copper-bottomed the protestant faith and any change to that, however well-intentioned, risks wrath and much
Opponents of an elected House of Lords have been flexing their muscles in the last few days. Yesterday, Archie Hamilton, a Tory peer and former chairman of the 1922 Committee, and a sceptic of the coalition’s plans for an elected Lords, put down a manuscript amendment on the Financial Services Bill, on which the government
The European Union has been handing out grants to environmentalist groups since 1997. New research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance today shows just how much the different groups have received. The European Environmental Bureau, an umbrella group for a number of the others who are funded directly, has received nearly €11 million. More familiar names funded
‘I was sceptical [about civil service reform] until I read that unreadable column.’ This was the response of a Westminster type who I spoke to earlier about Francis Maude and Sir Bob Kerslake’s joint article on civil service reform in today’s Telegraph. Having re-read the jargon-ridden piece, I see what he means. Take this passage:
I have only just discovered Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South, by catching up on last week’s Question Time. What a terrible experience. Thornberry did not only show what we must hope is her worst side, but displayed the worst of modern British politics. Answering a question about ‘problem families’, her fellow-panellist Peter Hitchens
Chancellor George Osborne’s latest idea to stimulate the economy is to offer the banks money (£140bn) to lend to firms and households. The idea is that families will borrow more and spend the extra cash on goods and services, while firms will borrow more to invest in providing these goods and services. With one bound,
‘Corruption,’ wrote Edward Gibbon in his peerless Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is ‘the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.’ I was reminded of this phrase when thinking about the Eurozone crisis. Commentators present a dichotomy between the discipline of northern Europe and the frivolity of southern Europe, which is characterised by bureaucratic,
Satirists are like pop stars in two respects. They earn extraordinary amounts of money, and the public assumes that they are left wing. You do not need to be a Marxist to suspect that the former will work against the latter. Investments in a hedge fund have a habit of dominating your mind however many
The late Auberon Waugh advised his readers to reflect on the case of David Flannigan when considering the munificent compensation often awarded to people after awful events. Mr Flannigan had been estranged from his parents for two years before the night of 21 December 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 fell onto the family’s house
I had the strangest call today from an outfit called publicservice.co.uk. A rather pleasant woman, albeit with a slightly insistent phone manner, asked me for my views on work creation and the government’s policy on hard to reach &”NEETS” (horrible jargon for young people not education, employment or training). I have my views, but I
It is almost invariably the case that whenever anyone favoured by the Guardian-reading classes chooses to accept an honour from Her Majesty the Queen the air is thick with suggestions said chap (for it is usually a fellow) has somehow “sold out”. This time it’s Armando Iannucci. Well so what? His own explanation – that
The environmental movement hasn’t responded well to the setbacks it has suffered seen since the failure of the Copenhagen climate conference. The #endfossilfuelsubsidies campaign — trending worldwide on Twitter this morning — is the latest example of their descent. To be clear, fossil fuel subsidies are not a good idea; that is why governments like
There was welcome news yesterday for our forces in Afghanistan, and for those who want to see them supplied with the best equipment, with pictures of the first ‘Foxhound’ patrol vehicles arriving in Helmand. Foxhound is the long-awaited replacement for the Snatch Land Rover, whose inadequate protection against Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and then
There has been a lot written about Greece’s elections. The outcome, a narrow victory for the New Democracy party, was the most widely expected result. Paradoxically, this result will lead to even more uncertainty. It is simply, to adopt a common American phrase of the moment, ‘kicking the can down the road.’ To most commentators,
Things in Greece could have been worse after yesterday’s election, but that fact can’t be hailed as a ‘turning point’. Assuming that Greek political leaders form a coalition and push ahead with EU-mandated reforms, which is a very likely outcome given that Greece may only have enough cash in its coffers to soldier on for
Ed Miliband must be livid. He has a sizeable lead in the polls, has taken ground on the economy and watches the government lurch from one self-authored disaster to the next. And then, and then, the trade unions engineer a very public row with the centrist think-tank Progress (which is funded by former Labour donor
This morning’s front pages are devoted to Greece, and the consensus is that the result of yesterday’s election amounts to little more than a stay of execution for Greece and the euro. At the time of writing, markets have responded to the news positively; but, fundamentally, nothing appears to have changed, so expect further turmoil.
Labour has only ever won a general election from the autumn of 1974 onwards when its leader has been called &”Tony Blair”. Four other leaders tried, but they were not called &”Tony Blair,” and Labour paid the price. I find it hard to credit the left’s failure myself sometimes, and, equally, find it easy to
Boris Johnson’s interventions today are another reminder of his ability to please the Tory tribe, and be a thorn in Cameron’s side. The prime minister has concluded that the best approach on Europe is to argue that the Eurozone needs to follow through on the logic of the single currency and move to fiscal union.
Today’s papers carry news that British nuclear submarines are going to be replaced: a strong indication that the government will replace Trident with a like-for-like deterrent in 2016, contrary to the wishes of the Liberal Democrats. Philip Hammond appeared on the Sunday Politics earlier today to answer questions from Andrew Neil on Trident and manpower
‘I think we are at a make or break place in Europe,’ said former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on the Andrew Marr Show. Europe is holding its breath for the results of today’s election, which, should the radical leftists Syriza win, threatens to open a new chapter in the euro’s unhappy history. Germany remains